Gracedale land debated for prison

Foes of expansion in Easton say Upper Nazareth site perfect.

It is the rallying cry of many of Northampton County's prison expansion opponents in Easton.

What about Gracedale?

The county's 350-acre expanse in Upper Nazareth Township is seen by opponents of the expansion site at Washington and Union streets in Easton as the perfect choice for a stand-alone prison.

The Upper Nazareth property, which is home to Gracedale, the county nursing home; the Greystone office building; public works equipment sheds; St. Luke's Hospital PennStar helipad; and the county's new 911 dispatch center, lies just outside Nazareth.

"It makes more sense to me," said Bob O'Neil, Easton's director of planning. "This is for post-sentenced incarcerated people. The land area is out there, the potential for expansion is out there."

So convinced is O'Neil that the wall of his planning office features an aerial view of the Gracedale property with the prison plan superimposed across the street from the Greystone Building.

County officials say it is an impractical and expensive option that would raise as much opposition in Upper Nazareth as the current plan has in Easton.

In particular, say county officials, the need to drive inmates back and forth from Upper Nazareth to Easton for court appearances and inmate services would raise security concerns and increase costs.

Human Services Director Ron Heckman also says he would like to use the property at Gracedale someday to build assisted living bungalows for the elderly to meet a growing need for senior housing with less intensive nursing.

The county's plan, to build a $22.8 million prison annex at Washington and Union streets in Easton, across from the county parking garage, awaits a zoning change by Easton City Council.

But even if Easton City Council refuses to clear the way for the plan, county Administration Director James Hickey said officials have no plans to go to Upper Nazareth.

"Flaming monkeys will sooner fly out of my [buttocks]," Hickey said.

Counting costs

There is certainly enough land at Gracedale.

The prison plan would take only about 2 acres in Easton. And where the Easton site is surrounded on all sides by homes and businesses, at Gracedale, say proponents of that option, there would be an unlimited ability to expand.

But if a prison is built at Gracedale, the county faces a variety of higher costs. Sewer tapping fees in Upper Nazareth are about twice as high as in Easton.

County planners estimate the county would have to pay $1 million to $1.5 million just to tap into the Nazareth Borough Municipal Authority.

Authority manager Pat Mendes said county architects consulted her on the matter, and the calculations probably aren't that far off.

"They would also have to build another pumping station on the Gracedale facility itself or another sewer line to our existing pumping station," Mendes said.

On the other hand, the county would not have to buy property -- an estimated cost of $1 million at the Easton site -- to build at Gracedale.

A county study estimates it would cost $860,000 a year more in staffing costs to run a 112,000-square-foot prison at Gracedale while maintaining much of the prison operation in Easton.

A substantial part of those costs would be for deputy sheriffs to transport prisoners nine miles back and forth to the courthouse, and to provide health care and other services.

"I have to have medical staff on 24 hours a day at every one of those locations," said Corrections Director H. James Smith. "If you take transportation, I just briefly talked to Sheriff [Jeff] Hawbecker, and he's talking a minimum of six men, plus a bus and a follow vehicle."

Hawbecker said fielding six more deputies would cost at least $250,000 a year.

Considering all factors, according to the county's analysis, maintaining the two prisons simultaneously would cost at least $1.2 million more per year than operating two prison buildings in Easton.

Offering alternatives

Monroe County Prison Warden Dave Keenhold, who supervises a prison seven miles outside the county seat of Stroudsburg, said he believes Northampton officials may be overstating the drawbacks.

Keenhold said increased use of videoconferencing and better planning with the judicial branch can reduce the cost of inmate transportation.

"You are not going to be able to get inmates there forthwith, like some judges demand," Keenhold said. "You just have to plan ahead."

In the long run, Keenhold said, a rural prison offers more options for expansion if it becomes necessary.

O'Neil and some other prison opponents in Easton are also skeptical of the county's numbers.

"They did crunch some numbers," O'Neil said. "I think they were just numbers, though, and you can make numbers say anything."

While community opposition in Easton has been growing, county officials say they would expect it to be even more organized and adamant in Upper Nazareth.